photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas head coach Bill Self applauds the play of his team during the first half, Friday, March 23, 2018 at CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb.

Now that the 2017-18 season is officially closed and dozens of people are already starting to look ahead to the 2018-19 season, you’ve probably encountered more than a few articles about what the Jayhawks will look like next season.

In a word: Different. KU coach Bill Self said as much following his team’s loss to Villanova last Saturday night at the Final Four in San Antonio, though he did not get into the specifics of what that meant.

This much we know: Devonte’ Graham and Svi Mykhailiuk, two of the most prolific shooters in Kansas basketball history and also two of the best four-year players Self has coached, will be gone and underclassmen Udoka Azubuike, Malik Newman and Lagerald Vick all appear to have decisions to make about their futures.

It’s never the right time or place to ask about the future, but it’s worth noting that, in the locker room after that loss to Villanova, all three players said they had not even thought about next year yet while acknowledging that they would in the coming days and weeks.

For my money, predicting what that trio will do is easy. Newman and Vick are gone and Azubuike, after testing the water and getting draft feedback from folks in the NBA, will return to KU for his junior season.

I’m not alone in this belief. Far from it, in fact. But I did find it interesting in perusing the way-too-early Top 25s for next season that so many national college basketball analysts are expecting either Newman or Vick to return and some of them are even predicting both.

I can’t see it. I think Newman was planning to leave Kansas even before his stellar postseason, and that eight-game run in which he proved to be one of the best offensive players in college basketball only strengthened his desire to take the next step and probably put him back on more than a few NBA Draft boards.

I also think Vick will be ready to tackle a new challenge. Playing with Frank Mason and Devonte’ Graham as your floor generals for your entire career can do wonders. And playing without them, while helping a group of young guards understand and find their way at the college level, might not be all that appealing to Vick. I think he’ll hit the combine, try to get drafted and then take his chances with an NBA summer league team or in the G League or Europe if it doesn’t work out with one of the 30 NBA franchises.

Azubuike, to me, just seems like a guy who has yet to hit his full potential. Another offseason with Andrea Hudy, a little more maturity and another full year of proving that he can be a beast around the basket — good goals for Udoka next season would be to try to average 10 rebounds a game and block more shots than he did in his freshman and sophomore seasons combined — surely would enhance Azubuike’s draft stock in a major way.

So now that we’ve established that, let’s take a quick look at some potential lineups for next season.

The starting five that seems most obvious and likely to me also appears to be the most popular one out there this week, but one of the best things about Self’s roster next season is that he will have a ton of depth and a ton of options. With that in mind, it’s entirely possible that he will go with something other than the most obvious lineup, which, for me, looks like this:

PG – Devon Dotson: From Devonte’ to Devon. That has a nice ring to it. And this kid can play. He’s ready-made for this role and will arrive on campus this summer eager to prove he’s up for it. Cal transfer Charlie Moore as a back-up is a tremendous luxury that even this year’s team would have killed to have.

2G – Quentin Grimes: Grimes is a totally different player than Malik Newman — think not as good of a shooter but better with the ball in his hands — who will offer Kansas a ton of versatility as an offensive player, a defender and both in half-court sets and transition.

3G – Marcus Garrett: If the Jayhawks land Romeo Langford, this spot is his. No doubt in my mind. And that would leave Garrett to back up all three positions, much like he did this season. If Langford picks Indiana or Vandy, though, it’s nearly impossible to see Garrett not cracking the starting lineup. He’s well on his way to becoming a lock-down defender, does all of those little things that Self loves incredibly well and has vowed to rework his shot completely this offseason to become a better all-around offensive player.

PF4 – Dedric Lawson: Future lottery pick potential and the complete package, with size, power, speed and athleticism. It’s not hard to envision Lawson leading this team in scoring next season. What’s even better for Kansas is that Silvio De Sousa is sitting there ready to push him every step of the way and these two should put Kansas in the conversation for having the best set of 4 men in the country.

C – Udoka Azubuike: This, of course, assumes that Azubuike will be back. But if he is, he’s an obvious starter and, perhaps even more important than that, an important team leader. Given his taste of the 2018 Final Four and desire to become the best player he possibly can be, I’m expecting to see an incredibly motivated Azubuike next season, one who will take his leadership role seriously and be ready and willing to hold others accountable while doing the same for himself. McDonald’s All-American David McCormack is a nice option as Azubuike’s back-up because McCormack, like Udoka, is an absolute beast around the rim and plays a physical and punishing brand of basketball that will ensure that opponents do not get any kind of break when Azubuike is on the bench.

That list puts Kansas at 8 deep (9 if they get Langford) and leaves the following players with an opportunity, but also some work to do, to find their way into the mix: Ochai Agbaji, Sam Cunliffe, K.J. Lawson and Mitch Lightfoot.

Of that group, Lightfoot is probably the most ready to handle a big role, but he also is stuck at a pretty deep position. A lot of his immediate future will be dependent upon how much Self wants to play two big men and how much he sticks with four guards, with a stretch 4 mixed in. If he plays the latter, there’s definitely a role for Lightfoot, who improved his shot a great deal last offseason and is better athletically than he gets credit for. If Self wants to get back to two bigs, Lightfoot easily could become a red-shirt candidate.

Imagine that and how ridiculously luxurious things are set up for the Jayhawks next season — a player who started the first two games of this year’s NCAA Tournament on a Final Four team might be best off red-shirting next season. Wow.

After that, Lawson and Cunliffe both have some experience, and decent numbers when they got it, but neither player is an obvious choice to be an automatic rotation guy as things stand today. And Agbaji, who is tougher and more talented than most people realize — and would most certainly have played a role on the last two KU teams — might be poised to red-shirt his first year and save all of that eligibility for the next four seasons.

With all of that said, and you having some time to make your own conclusions about who’s back, who’s best and who will fit where, here’s a quick look at a few other options for Self during the 2018-19 season.

We’ll call this first one Option B

PG – Charlie Moore
2G – Quentin Grimes
3G – Marcus Garrett/Romeo Langford
PF4 – Dedric Lawson
C – Udoka Azubuike

This next one is called the Little Guard Look

PG – Devon Dotson
2G – Charlie Moore
3G – Quentin Grimes
PF4 – Dedric Lawson
C – Udoka Azubuike

How about the Big and Bad lineup

PG – Quentin Grimes
2G – Marcus Garrett/Romeo Langford

SF – Dedric Lawson

PF – Silvio De Sousa
C – Udoka Azubuike

And then there’s the Veteran Group

PG – Charlie Moore
2G – Marcus Garrett
3G – Sam Cunliffe/K.J. Lawson
PF4 – Dedric Lawson
C – Udoka Azubuike

You also could always go with a true 4-Guard Lineup, though I can’t imagine anyone would as a starting option

PG – Devon Dotson
2G – Quentin Grimes
3G – Romeo Langford
4G – Marcus Garrett
C – Udoka Azubuike

While some of those are absolutely ridiculous and almost certain to never see the light of day, the point in putting them on paper was this: 1. It’s always fun to play around with potential lineups and looks. 2. It illustrates clearly just how deep and talented the 2018-19 Kansas roster will be.

The bottom line for me is that I can’t imagine Self going with something other than the first lineup I mentioned or Option B. Will there be times on the floor when injuries, matchups or foul trouble dictate that he has to tinker with things a bit? I would say that’s a safe bet. But when it comes to starting lineups and the players who will hold down those spots for the majority of the season, I think there are only a few true options there, with a ton of quality depth to back them up.

It sure will be interesting. And it’s likely going to bring back a serious dose of that cut-throat competitiveness that Self loves so much, starting this summer and continuing well into the fall.